SAADA, Yemen - He heard the military helicopters coming, Dr Ali al-Wadiee told Seattle Times in a... Yemen on brink of sectaria

SAADA, Yemen - He heard the military helicopters coming, Dr Ali al-Wadiee told Seattle Times in al-Ruzamat, a small village amid the volcanic mountains of Yemen's remote north, near the border with Saudi Arabia.

In Saada province, 240 kilometers north of the capital Sana'a, nearly 700 people have been killed as fighting reignited in late January between the Yemeni army and a Zaidi Shi'ite insurgent group called Al Shabab Al Moumin (the Youthful Believers) - formed by now-deceased tribal chief Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi - after the rebels threatened to kill members of a small Jewish community in Saada if they did not leave the country within 10 days.

At the outskirts of al-Ruzamat, more than 10km south of al-Naqa'ah, a metal sign hanging from a shiny new chain reads: "Warning: Access to this area is forbidden for security reasons - the Yemeni army."

The current conflict represents the third government crackdown since 2004 in Saada province, where the anti-government Shi'ite insurgency started out as a small domestic protest against Yemeni policy. Rebel clerics have denounced the government's ties with the United States and demanded an end to its gradual shift to Western-style social and democratic reforms.

The government has received strong US military support to curb terrorism in the region. Al-Thawra, a government-funded newspaper in Sana'a, reported last September 26 that US Ambassador Thomas C Krajeski had declared Washington's support for the Yemeni government in its confrontation with Houthi's insurgency.

The government is determined to crush the uprising. But many observers worry that it may not be wholly able to overcome Houthi's group, which aims to install an Iranian-style Islamic theocracy.

"They refused all offers by the government to disarm and form a political party to live in peace," said Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor at Sana'a University. "I think the rebels have this time lost all grounds for negotiations with the government."

Observers are also concerned that hundreds of anti-Western insurgents could strike out at foreigners and Western interests in the country. This month the Interior Ministry temporarily tightened security around foreign embassies against possible terrorist attacks.

"Here in Yemen, tribe, religion and weapons are the most dangerous things in the hands of tribesmen against the government," said Abdul-Elah Haidar, a researcher on terrorism affairs at the Saba News Agency and regular columnist for London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi. "And when a group combines the three, it can easily become a substantial political force."

This escalation of violence has been a frightening setback for the Yemeni government, which had rigidly controlled the threats from al-Qaeda and was beginning to benefit from the cautious return of tourists and foreign investors.

Lacking large oil reserves or any modern manufacturing facilities, Yemen is particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The bombing attacks that targeted US- and Canadian-owned oil facilities in the eastern provinces of Marib and Hadarmout last September 15, the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, and the October 2002 bombing of the French supertanker Limberg have cost the government millions of dollars as insurance premiums for ship owners have soared, causing many of them to refuse to dock at Yemen's ports.

This guerrilla style of war and terrorist attacks has frightened off thousands of mainly European tourists who come to admire the country's unique ancient mud-brick cities and amazing landscape.

Most Yemenis believe that Iran backs the Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north of the Sunni-dominated country, pointing out that the minority Zaidi sect makes up about a fifth of Yemen's population.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in January that some countries were supplying Houthi's group with weapons and financial support, but he did not name them.

Tariq al-Shami, spokesman for Saleh's ruling party, the General People's Congress (GPC), said Iranian security officials had told Yemen that some Iranian religious institutions were supporting the rebels, but they added that Houthi's group was not backed by Tehran. "There are Iranian religious institutions which are providing support to the Shi'ite insurgency in Yemen," Shami recently posited on the GPC's website.

Last March, Yemen freed more than 600 Shi'ite rebels as part of an amnesty to end two years of clashes that had killed several hundred soldiers and rebels. But "the Houthis have used a period of truce with the state to buy heavy weapons using foreign support money", Shami said.

Military sources say Houthi's three-year fight against the government has cost the country an estimated US$800 million, with extensive damage to property.

Sunni Muslims are a majority in Yemen, a nation of 19 million. It is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. However, Houthi and his supporters are not linked to al-Qaeda.

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